Tag: craters
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Sunset from Mars: Why the Mars sunset is blue
NASA’s Curiosity Rover photographed this view of the sun setting from its 956th Martian day on Mars. Notice that the sunset from Mars appears blue. The above image actually consists of a sequence of four images captured over a span of 6 minutes, 51 seconds. Check out the full GIF below. Said Mark Lemmon of…
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Aogashima Island in Japan contains rare and active double volcano
Aogashima is a volcanic island in the Philippine Sea, under the administration of Tokyo, despite standing over 200 miles away from the Japanese mainland. The island is known for its unique double volcano structure, with a smaller volcano, Maruyama, located inside the larger caldera. You read that right; the island houses a volcano within a…
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Meet Mexico’s hidden beach, Playa del Amor of the Marieta Islands
There’s a hidden beach deep in the Marieta Islands of Mexico known as Playa del Amor (Lover’s Beach). Like Portugals’ stunning Benagil Sea Cave, the beach is concealed inside a hinged cave and can only be reached by swimming or kayaking through an extensive water tunnel during low tides. But first, to get to Playa del…
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Archeologists discover new ‘Moai’ statue on Easter Island
Scientists discovered a new ‘Moai’ stone statue in a dry lake bed on Easter Island. A group composed of geologists from three different Chilean universities uncovered the megalithic statue within the crater of the Rano Raraku volcano. They were investigating the area in a restoration effort after fires devastated the land the previous year. At…
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Explore the incredible crater of Australia’s Gosses Bluff
Gosses Bluff is an eroded crater remnant in central Australia formed from an asteroid or comet collision during the earliest Cretaceous period, 142 million years ago. The 3-mile wide crater was originally believed to be 12 miles in diameter before natural erosion took its course. The aboriginal Western Arrernte were the first to recognize the…
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Discover the wonder of Onekotan Island
Onekotan is a deserted volcanic island in the northwest Pacific Ocean near the northern end of Russia’s Kuril Islands chain in the Sea of Okhotsk. The archipelago consists of two stratovolcanos at each end, Krenitsyn and Nemo, connected by a flat strip of land. Crater lakes surround both volcanoes. The 4344-foot Krenitsyn volcano on the…
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Turkmenistan’s Darvaza gas crater, the ‘door to hell’
The Darvaza gas crater, commonly known as the Gates of Hell or Door to Hell, is an extraordinary geological formation. Located in Turkmenistan, this natural gas field collapsed into an underground cavern due to a drilling mishap. Soviet engineers set the 230-foot hole on fire while exploring for gas in 1971. The ground beneath the…
